Reckitts Blue

[stefaan]

HiI have an order from the Air Ministry that deals with camouflage specs for a/c dated Aug 42.In it it is stated that the undersides on Desert A/C should be Reckitts Blue.Does anybody know what colour that is??Azure or Med Blue??Stefaan

[Nick Beale]

I can remember the product itself as being a medium blue shade but that's from early childhood memories of being at my Nan's house on Washing Day (ordained in ancient British tribal lore as Monday).

IIRC it came in a solid block and you put it (or a piece of it?) in with your laundry - before us working class people had washing machines - to make washing look whiter somehow (forget the so-called Space Age: this was the area where 1950s technology was moving at dizzying speeds, if you believed the ads, rather like anti-ageing creams are the hot technology in the Digital Age).

You can still buy the stuff somewhere, for all I know.

[Peter Clare]

I well recall Reckitts Blue being used on washing day, usually on a Monday.

I believe that the colour you are looking for is Sky or Azure, (under surface colouring) this information is taken from AMO A.664/42 to AMO A.1246/43 Camouflage Colouring and Markings of Aircraft, the section dealing with day fighters abroad.

Regards
Peter Clare

[stefaan]

Yep.That is also what I know it to have been on undersides.It is also what is quoted in some of the other orders so one must asume it is most likely mixtures/consistency so that it took that colour once applied.ThanksStefaan

[Graham Boak]

Three different shades of blue could be found on fighters in the desert war. The ME Command ruled out the use of Sky, judging it as too light. Local MUs used Mediterranean Light Blue, a medium blue colour close to the familiar PRU Blue but less grey. Deliveries from the UK were made in Sky Blue, a duck-egg blue colour, until painting was standardised on Azure Blue.

The 1942 AMO quoted above is ambiguous: it refers to "Sky, Azure and Light Mediterranean Blue" as being equally acceptable. As there is no colour called Azure, the correct title being Azure Blue, and Sky had been rejected by the ME many months previously, it has been suggested that Sky Blue was actually intended.

To make matters worse, there were two different Sky Blues. The prewar colour seems to have been what was used, as the wartime RAE formulation is actually lighter than Sky.

For anyone used to modelling with Humbrol's Azure Blue - hard luck, that was a mistake, the paint matches Mediterranean Light Blue.

Who said Luftwaffe colours were difficult?

I remember Reckitt's Blue too.

[Chris Thomas]

I come from Hull and once in my youth visited Reckitt's factory and saw the famed 'blue' being manufactured. It was a vivid medium blue. It had some of the quality of the blue you see used in those old adverts painted on the sides of French houses. My mother-in-law, who can be considered an expert on R's Blue, is visiting and together we have viewed the paint chips which were published in 'British Aviation Colours of WW2'. Azure Blue is the nearest - but not dark enough. Deep Sky is far too dark and Light Mediterranean Blue too grey.

[stefaan]

Just another variation on undersides in the desert.
I spoke to a ground crew member that said that at some time they had to paint their a/c white sides and under the fuselage but they left the wings blue.This was relevant to Bisley's and Baltimores.
I have noted these different shades on photo's but never able to explain this untill he told me.
On some photo's of the Bisley's the underside was almost white which may have been early Sky, and some darker looking like Sky Blue or Azure Blue or even any of the 2 Mediteranean Blues.
I also have correspondence between Desert HQ and the units stating that Sky is the same as Duck Egg Blue, but I agree with the above sentiment that this must have been the later Sky Blue.
Stefaan